Wrapping a towel around me, I left the bathroom—

Gideon stood just inside my closed bedroom door. The sight of him spurred a reaction so abrupt it was like a physical blow. My breath caught and my heart lurched into an excited rhythm, my entire being responding to the sight of him with a potent rush of yearning. It felt like years since I’d last been with him, instead of a mere hour.

I’d given him a key, but he owned the building. Getting to me without leaving a trail that could be followed was possible with that advantage … just as he’d been able to get to Nathan.

“It’s dangerous for you to be here,” I pointed out. That didn’t stop me from being thrilled that he was. My gaze drank him in, roaming avidly over his lean, broad-shouldered frame.

He wore black sweats and a well-loved Columbia sweatshirt, a combination that made him look like the twenty-eight-year-old man he was and not the billionaire mogul the rest of the world knew. A Yankees ball cap was pulled low over his brow, but the shadow cast by its brim did nothing to diminish the striking blue of his eyes. They stared at me fiercely, his sensual lips drawn into a grim line. “I couldn’t stay away.”

Gideon Cross was an impossibly gorgeous man, so beautiful that people stopped and stared when he walked by. I’d once thought of him as a sex god, and his frequent—and enthusiastic—displays of prowess constantly proved me right, but I also knew he was all too human. Like me, he’d been broken.

The odds were against our making it.

My chest expanded on a deep breath, my body responding to the proximity of his. Even though he stood several feet away, I could feel the heady attraction, the magnetic pull of being near the other half of my soul. It’d been that way with us from the very first meeting, both of us inexorably drawn together. We’d mistaken our ferocious mutual captivation for lust until we realized we couldn’t breathe without each other.

I fought the urge to run into his arms, the place where I so desperately wanted to be. But he was too still, too tightly reined. I waited in exquisite anticipation for his cue.

God, I loved him so much.

His hands fisted at his sides. “I need you.”

My core tightened in response to the roughness of his voice, the rasp of it warm and luxurious.

“You don’t have to sound so happy about it,” I teased breathlessly, trying to lighten his mood before he got me beneath him.

I loved him wild, and I loved him tender. I’d take him any way I could get him, but it’d been so long … My skin was already tingling and tightening expectantly, craving the greedy reverence of his touch. I feared what would happen if he came at me full force when I was so starved for his body. We might tear each other apart.

“It’s killing me,” he said gruffly. “Being without you. Missing you. I feel like my fucking sanity depends on you, Eva, and you want me to be happy about that?”

My tongue darted out to wet my dry lips and he growled, sending a shiver through me. “Well … I’m happy about it.”

The tension in his posture visibly eased. He must’ve been so worried about how I would react to what he’d done for me. To be honest, I’d been worried. Did my gratitude mean I was more twisted than I realized?

Then I remembered my stepbrother’s hands all over me … his weight pressing me into the mattress … the tearing pain between my legs as he rammed into me over and over …

I trembled with renewed fury. If being glad the fucker was dead made me twisted, so be it.

Gideon took a deep breath. His hand reached up to his chest and rubbed at the area over his heart as if it hurt him.

“I love you,” I told him, my eyes stinging with fresh tears. “I love you so much.”

“Angel.” He reached me with quick strides, dropping his keys on the floor and shoving both hands into my damp hair. He was shaking, and I cried, overwhelmed by the knowledge of how much he needed me.

Tilting my head to the angle he wanted, Gideon took my mouth with searing possession, tasting me with slow, deep licks. His passion and hunger exploded across my senses, and I whimpered, my hands tangling in his sweatshirt. His answering groan vibrated through me, tightening my nipples and sending goose bumps racing across my skin.

I melted into him, my hands pushing the cap from his head so that my fingers could sink into the silky black mane of his hair. I fell into the kiss, swept away by the lush carnality of it. A sob escaped me.

“Don’t,” he breathed, pulling back to cradle my jaw. He looked into my eyes. “It shreds me when you cry.”

“It’s too much.” I trembled.

His beautiful eyes looked as weary as mine. He nodded grimly. “What I did—”

“Not that. How I feel about you.”

He rubbed the tip of his nose against me, his hands sliding reverently along my bare arms—hands with proverbial blood on them, which only made me love his touch all the more.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

His eyes closed. “God, when you left tonight … I didn’t know if you’d come back … if I’d lost you—”

“I need you, too, Gideon.”

“I won’t apologize. I’d do it again.” His grip tightened on me. “The options were restraining orders, increased security, vigilance … for the rest of your life. There was no guarantee you’d be safe unless Nathan was dead.”

“You cut me off. Shut me out. You and me—”

“Forever.” His fingertips pressed against my parted lips. “It’s over, Eva. Don’t argue about something that’s too late to change.”

I brushed his hand away. “Is it over? Can we be together now, or are we still hiding our relationship from the police? Are we even in a relationship?”

Gideon held my gaze, hiding nothing, letting me see his pain and fear. “That’s what I’m here to ask you.”

“If it’s up to me, I’ll never let you go,” I said vehemently. “Never.”

Gideon’s hands slid down my throat to my shoulders, blazing a hot trail across my skin. “I need that to be true,” he said softly. “I was afraid you’d run … that you’d be afraid. Of me.”

“Gideon, no—”

“I would never hurt you.”

I caught the waistband of his sweats and tugged, even though I couldn’t budge him. “I know that.”

And physically, I had no doubts; he’d always been careful with me, always cautious. But emotionally, my love had been used against me with meticulous precision. I was struggling with reconciling the absolute trust I had in Gideon’s awareness of my needs and the wariness that came from a shattered heart still healing.

“Do you?” He searched my face, as attuned as always to what wasn’t said. “Letting you go would kill me, but I wouldn’t hurt you to keep you.”

“I don’t want to go anywhere.”

He exhaled audibly. “My lawyers will be talking to the police tomorrow, to get a feel for where things stand.”

Tilting my head back, I pressed my lips gently to his. We were colluding to hide a crime, and I’d be lying if I said that didn’t seriously bother me—I was the daughter of a police officer, after all—but the alternative was too awful to consider.

“I have to know that you can live with what I’ve done,” he said softly, wrapping my hair around his finger.

“I think so. Can you?”

His mouth found mine again. “I can survive anything if I have you.”

I reached under his sweatshirt, seeking and finding his warm, golden skin. His muscles were hard and ridged beneath my palms, his body a seductive and virile work of art. I licked his lips, my teeth catching the full curve along the bottom and biting gently. Gideon groaned. The sound of his pleasure slid over me like a caress.

“Touch me.” The words were an order, but his tone was a plea.

“I am.”

Reaching behind him, he grabbed my wrist and pulled my hand around. He thrust his cock shamelessly into my palm, grinding. My fingers curled around the thick, heavy length, my pulse quickening at the realization that he was commando beneath his sweats.

“God,” I breathed. “You make me so hot.”

His blue eyes were fierce on my face; his cheeks flushed and his sculpted lips parted. He never tried to hide the effect I had on him, never pretended that he had any more control over his response to me than I had to him. It made his dominance in the bedroom all the more exciting, knowing that he was similarly as helpless to the attraction between us.

My chest tightened. I still couldn’t believe that he was mine, that I got to see him this way, so open and hungry and sexy as hell …

Gideon tugged my towel open. He inhaled sharply when it hit the floor and I stood before him completely naked. “Ah, Eva.”

His voice throbbed with emotion, making my eyes sting. He yanked his shirt up and over his head, tossing it aside. Then he reached for me, stepping carefully into me, prolonging the moment when our bare skin would touch.

He gripped my hips, his fingers flexing restlessly, his breathing quick and harsh. The tips of my breasts touched him first, sending a sudden rush of sensation through my body. I gasped. He crushed me to him with a growl, lifting my feet from the floor and carrying me backward toward the bed.

2

MY THIGHS HIT the mattress and I landed on my butt, falling to my back with Gideon leaning over me. He hitched me up with an arm banded around my back, centering me on the bed before he settled atop me. His mouth was on my breast before I knew it, his lips soft and warm, the suction fast and greedy. He plumped the heavy weight in his hand, kneading possessively.

“Christ, I’ve missed you,” he groaned. His skin was hot against my cool flesh, his weight so welcome after the long nights without him.

I hooked my legs around his calves and shoved my hands beneath his waistband to grip his taut, hard ass. I tugged him into me, arching my hips to feel his cock through the cotton that separated us. Wanting him inside me, so that I’d know for certain he was mine again.